Lucky Louie: HBO Series Cancelled But is There Hope?

Lucky Louie, the multi-camera comedy series starring and written by Emmy-winning writer-producer Louis C.K., has been cancelled by HBO after one season. Though they’ve had great success with single-camera shows like Entourage and Curb Your Enthusiasm, Lucky Louie was a more traditionally shot sitcom and utilized multiple cameras in front of a studio audience (a format created by actor-director-producer Desi Arnaz for I Love Lucy). In content, the show however was anything but traditional and has inspired a devote (though small) audience. Described as a bluntly realistic portrayal of family life, the show drew an average of 1.3 million viewers a week, losing about a million viewers from its Entourage lead-in.

There are no hard feelings at HBO. Following the cancellation notice, HBO Entertainment Chief Carolyn Strauss issued a statement saying, “Louis is an incredible talent and a wonderful partner. We loved trying our first multi-camera show with him, and we look forward to other projects with Louis in the future.”

But Louis and fans aren’t prepared to let the show die just yet. On his official website, Louis had initially expressed interest in bringing the Lucky Louie series to another network. He has rethought that and now asks fans to rally together and to contact HBO to encourage them to change their mind and order a second season. Could that work? Hard to say. HBO was recently deluged with similar requests to renew the popular Deadwood series and the result was plans for a pair of two-hour movies that will conclude the western series.

The last original first-season episode of Lucky Louie aired on August 27, 2006. The series is expected to be rerun on HBO starting on October 16, 2006. Will there be a second season? Time will tell. Stay tuned!